Men have always wanted to fly like the birds. It was only in 1783 that man first achieved flight when the Montgolfier Brothers filled a balloon with hot air. Many people tried to copy the birds by fitting wings to their arms and flapping them. They did not fly because the muscles in man's chest and shoulders are simply not strong enough to provide the necessary lift and propulsion.
Sir George Caley had a better idea in that he built gliders which could carry a pilot. However, he found that this was not entirely satisfactory since he could not control the movements of the glider completely. Next, other men tried to propel their gliders with steam engines. The steam engines, however, were much to heavy and the planes could not take off.
Otto Lilienthal built many gliders and made over two thousand test flights. He thought of fitting a small engine to one of the gliders but he died before he could test his idea.
The first men known to fly in an airplane driven by an engine were Orville and Wilbur Wright. Orville Wright made the world's first powered flight on Dec. 17, 1903 at Kittyhawk, N.C. which lasted 12 seconds.
Since that time airplanes have been developed for use in wars, on land and in the sea. They have been used to fly commercial freight and passengers. With these developments, airplane flight has become increasingly available to the common working man. As a result, many thousands of people currently own their own aircraft and enjoy flying in their own airplanes and gliders for sport and for transporation. One only need to look around a local airport to see the number of small aircraft utilized for business and pleasure today.
With the increase in the number of people flying, it was found necessary to impose licensing and other regulations on pilots. One agency charged with this responsibility in the United States is the Federal Aviation Administration. Thus, regulations have been promulgated such as minimum distances of airports to residential homes, minimum flight clearances, weather related restrictions and instrumentation requirements in the interest of public safety.
One such regulation mandates that pilots who have had heart attacks are not able to pilot airplanes alone and requires the presence of a second qualified pilot in the cockpit if the pilot has had a heart attack. This requirement has severely restricted the personal flying time available to those pilots who have had a history of heart attacks. Because of this, many pilots who might otherwise experience the joy of flight on a regular basis must severely curtail their flight time unless a second qualified pilot can be found to share the cockpit with them.
One solution to this problem, that has been suggested previously in the prior art, has been to either pull or tow the airplane by a land based vehicle. There are several known prior art designs which disclose airplanes either pulled or towed by land based vehicles. One example is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,825,363 to Robertson. Robertson discloses a seaplane which is pivotally connected by rigid arms to a small boat or sled that is provided with a power source such as an outboard motor. The small boat is provided with its own motor and the arms propel the plane while the seaplane is in the water or in the air. The seaplane is capable of carrying two people and is connected to a sled to permit the pilot in the seaplane to manipulate elevators for causing the seaplane to lift clear of the water when it has obtained sufficient speed. The outboard motor can be started by one of the passengers in the plane by means of a cord which extends from the plane back to the outboard motor in the sea sled. The fuel and spark control for the motor are extended by arms to the fuselage of the airplane where they may be reached by the pilot to control the speed of the motor of the sled. Other such similar prior art devices are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,750,978 to Cunningham and U.S. Pat. No. 3,614,024 to Milmann.
Eickmann in U.S. Pat. No. 3,503,574 discloses a fluid power operated vehicle. Eickmann has fluid power producing means which are positioned in a base unit for supplying pressurized fluid to fluid motors located in the flying vehicle for rotating propulsion elements, such as propellers, which determine the altitude and movement of the flying vehicles. The power producing means in the fluid motor are interconnected by fluid passageways for circulating the pressurized fluid to the fluid motor and then returning the fluid to the power producing means. The control of the altitude and movement of the flying vehicle are positioned in either the flying vehicle or the base vehicle as required. Several arrangements of the vehicle groups and connecting means are provided so that one can be pulled or towed by the other.
All of the above cited prior art designs, however, have either complicated aerodynamic controls or complex fluid systems. In addition, they are limited exclusively either to use with land base vehicles or sea based vehicles. Furthermore, none of the aforementioned designs provides a simple, inexpensive, piloted flying craft which is connected to a craft on the ground surface which simulates the joy of flying to those pilots restricted by health requirements or other sports minded individuals who do not have a pilot's license.